The Radical (Unity Vol.1) (11 page)

A
fter wolfing the food down in record time and drinking the Guinness like there was no tomorrow, I selected another pint of the black stuff and looked up to see a man staring at me from across the pub. It was the one I had passed on my way out the day before but this time, he seemed to be giving me daggers. I pretended not to have noticed him but his stare was omnipresent. I couldn’t see past the way he was looking at me, like he wanted my attention but for all the wrong reasons.

He
turned his attention back toward the direction of the automated bar service when I realized who he was. This time, I decided to stare in his direction, but when he failed to notice, I made the brave decision to go over myself.

I cleared my
throat and he swung round to meet my confident glare. He seemed startled to see me before him, but I gave him little time to react.

I tried to seem breezy but I could feel my cheeks twitching with the effort to put on a smile. I spoke through clenched teeth,
‘Doctor Ryken Hardy?’

His mocking
smile revealed a set of unbelievably straight teeth and his expression betrayed arrogance. I was unwillingly reacting to him. He was the most striking man I had ever met. He wasn’t just stocky, he was difficult to describe. It made me wonder whether he had used enhancement drugs to build what was certainly a physique packed with precisely carved musculature. He was a former military man, but there was something about his aura. I really wanted to trash his hopes of me being reasonable.

‘The infamous Seraph Maddon,
’ he jeered in a gruff voice.

He turned back to the
dimly-lit bar as if to give me the brush-off, forcing me to shout above the synth-jazz blaring out from the nearby speakers.

‘Would you like to join me at my table? Perhaps we could both do with some company?’
I tried to convince him. I vainly thought he would agree without argument.

He mused with drink in hand, tipping the glass calmly to his lips. I guessed he was drinking soda, whereas I found myself at a disadvantage with the Guinness heating my veins and cheeks.

‘That’s mighty magnanimous of you,’ he quipped, raising one eyebrow, ‘but I’ll think about it.’

I looked at the floor and
realized he was seeing the woman everyone thought I was. He had no idea what I was going through, who I really was, otherwise he might have treated me better.

‘
Be an ass then,’ I spitted.

I walked back to my booth wishing I
had never bothered. I played with a napkin as if I didn’t care but inside I was desperate to bolt out of the joint.

Two minutes later, however, he seemed to have changed h
is mind and was stood by the side of my table, looking cocky with his drink in hand.

‘Sorry I was rude. It was inexcusable.
I’ve just had a bad day but I would like to join you, if that’s okay?’

It felt silly of me but inside, I roiled with relief. I needed someone to talk to. I felt so alone, so I
nodded for him to sit down.

There was silence for a while. Neither of us knew where to start, or if there was even a start. We were just there in that bar, because there was no place better to be. Inside, I felt emotional and weak. I didn’t want to show him that.

‘How come we’ve not met before?’ he asked, his deep voice slicing through the ice.

‘
Guess we are both damn busy,’ I hedged.

‘You look sad. What is it?
’

I didn’t think it was obvious but clearly it was. I felt morose and desperate, as if everything was coming apart around me.
I looked into his eyes and thought I saw genuine concern. I chose a response close to the truth.

‘
I just exposed another dark secret,’ I explained. ‘This one was… more difficult than any other.’

‘You wanna talk about it?
’ he urged me, a hand of his suddenly on the table between us, drumming his fingers.

‘Not at all,
’ I replied, avoiding his eyes, ‘and I’ll be fucked before I talk about it with
you
.’

His jaw ticked, his eyes grew wide, but he said nothing.
I held a hand over my mouth and tried to stop my lip trembling. I needed to be held so badly. I felt incredibly disconsolate.

‘
I heard you got fired?’ I turned the heat on him, scratching my hands through my loose hair.

A hint of fury crossed his features but he quickly recovered himself, smiling through gritted teeth.
In fact I think I saw him watching my hair tumble over the tabletop.

‘I wondered how long it would take for you to have a go
.’

He squirmed so I leapt on my chance
, tucking all those strands of chestnut silk to one side to distract him. If that is what he thought of me, I would be the hard bitch he expected. Just a cunning seductress using her charms to get him.

‘H
ave I made
you
uncomfortable, Doctor Hardy? Don’t be a shrinking violet now. It is
only
natural to want to know why you got ditched from your position. Doesn’t everyone ask?’

I
peered through slit eyes at his hulking frame. His shoulders were impressively wide and solid, filling his tailored leather jacket to the edges. Like me, he had pockets for everything. He would always be prepared, being ex-military. His hands were large and veiny, with manicured nails and a large Rolex sitting on his brick of a wrist. The bit of neck that poked out of the top of his black polo neck was thick and tense, seeming to bulge with muscles every time he moved. His pronounced Adam’s apple bobbed provokingly as he spoke in deep, cosmopolitan tones resounding of a British man who had traveled and seen something of the world. His form was giant, but his face and limbs were long and sophisticated. His chiseled cheekbones and jaw, large oval dark-brown eyes, tanned olive skin, short but side-parted straight jet-black hair and sharp clothes were overpowering. His appearance didn’t seem to fit the sartorial de rigueur of his profession.

‘I was fired for lack of results in my sector, but of course we kn
ow the real reason.
You already know.
Seeing as though you’re always writing drivel about everyone.’

H
e was ready to pump for information. Sat opposite him, however, I could do nothing to escape having to look at him. He was riveting and gorgeous, unbelievably handsome, dashing even, but I didn’t want to admit it. His Roman nose, full lips almost purple in color, along with a set of perfect, large ivory teeth, were all of a sudden becoming a point of distraction. I nervously ran my tongue over my own front teeth, which were slightly crooked from years of playing hockey. Instead of turning into a gibbering wreck, I decided to take control.

‘Well, if you agreed to give me an interview once in a whi
le, I wouldn’t need to dig shit up on you, would I?’

He smelt of something. Musky. J
ust as I was coming down from my remonstration, the hatch blinked into life, delivering my drink.

‘Interviews
wouldn’t make any difference, the truth would only end up misconstrued, as it always does,’ he replied, sarcasm pouring from him.

I collected myself and tried not to seem insulted, when that was all I felt. Needless to say, he was still seeing the image I
had painted of myself, the one people saw.

‘Wanna know how I do this? I mean, you know, why I do this?
’

‘Hit me with the best you got,
’ he demanded.

I took a deep breath and sat up straight, looking up under my brow to stare into his eyes.

‘They killed my parents. So fuck you for your incidental mistrust.’

I scrubbed my cheek, which was red raw. All I could do was look down at my lap.

‘I didn’t know,’ he mumbled, discomfort in his voice.

‘Nobody does. I buried it. Long ago. Had a friend scrub it off the database. They never existed as far as the world is concerned.
’

I trembled with self-loathing. I was giving myself away with every moment we spent together. I was totally unable to help myself when he stood and walked to my side of the booth, forcing me
to scoot over. His arms encircled me and held me, without words. I closed my eyes and just breathed. I didn’t hold him in return because I physically couldn’t, his arms were so tight around me. I just let my head fall into his chest and I relaxed for a moment.

‘L
et’s start over shall we? We got off on the wrong foot. I apologize.’

‘Thank you
,’ I sighed.

I was so close to breaking down, it was unreal.

‘I still have my mum but I know how you feel. My father hasn’t been seen or heard of in years. I don’t know what became of him.’

I didn’t respond
. I had spent so many years telling myself men only wanted one thing and that had made it easier to behave the way I did. Nonetheless I would be the modicum of polite company to probe what I wanted out of Ryken.

I shifted to the edge of the seat,
tugging myself out of his arms. I shrugged and whispered, ‘I’m okay, really. Stay, though. The closer you sit the less likely anyone will overhear…’

‘What have you go
t to tell me?’

‘
First,’ I glanced at him sideways, ‘I’m having trouble placing that accent of yours. From what I’ve gleaned so far it’s verging on Lancashire but there’s a shred of something else, right?’

‘
The Mancunian is hard to get rid of,’ he smiled at me, making my stomach clench. ‘I moved about a lot with the Army after growing up in Oldham, before settling in New York eight years ago, for work.’

‘
My lineage is British,’ I revealed.

‘Really?
’ he raised a brow.

‘Uh, yeah,
’ I teased, holding my hair out toward him. ‘Pretty Celtic, don’t you think? Plus Maddon, which is I don’t know… Welsh, Scottish, Irish maybe even… I have never had the time to investigate that.’

He nodded like he knew my meaning. Everything I did was for a cause, a singular purpose, and he understood that now. I had forsaken life
outside of work to find out why my parents were mown down in broad daylight, like they were no better than dogs.

‘
My parents met and married while studying medicine in Leeds, just before moving to New York. They carried on their training at Columbus… and both became leading heart surgeons.’

‘Really? Shit.
What did they think about you being a reporter? Not following in their footsteps?’

‘Hated it,
’ I replied sharply, reaching for my drink. ‘I was never good at science, though. I don’t know what it was, but it bored me.’

He held a hand at his heart like I had wounded him. It had been difficult for my parents too, not being able to really connect with me on an intellectual level. They were so straight and disciplined, whereas I only wanted to live a life of variety.

‘You don’t like science, not even a bit? Yet you chase its truths every day? There is irony in that, if nothing else,’ he grinned broadly, his smile sending aches through my heart that I mistrusted.

I was insatiably attracted to this man. I secretly wondered why we were wasting time talking when all I wanted was to have him inside me. He was so manly.

I distracted myself with the surroundings; the faux-leather upholstery of the booths we sat in, and the mock-wooden stools, floors, tables and bar that Ryken had just left.

‘How were they murdered?
’ he dared ask.

‘Almost the same way as Mara Dulwich’s father. Go figure.’

‘Why…?’

I shook my head.
‘Honestly? I don’t fuckin’ know. I mean…’ I had to choose my next words carefully. Could I trust him enough to bring him into my innermost confidence? Not right then, no. Not yet. ‘The mystery is one of the things I’ve been chasing my entire career. How exactly they upset Officium, I have no idea.’

He looked around to check nobody was within e
arshot, eyeing the few lone pub-goers that were in there with us. ‘Bloody hell, we ought to go somewhere quieter if you’re going to talk so candidly. Don’t mention them here.’             

‘You talk like someone
I used to know. She used to spout the same thing. “Never mention their name. Don’t risk yourself. Only say what you dare say to their face” she used to warn me.’

I
took another swig of stout, staring Ryken directly in the eye with a stern look that could freeze ice.

‘You don’t fear them, in spite of all they have done? To others, not just your parents.
’

‘
You obviously don’t know who you’re dealing with here. I don’t give a damn who hears us. How do you think I get the stories I do?’

He seemed shocked by my
bravado and proceeded tentatively, ‘Why do you reckon
they
were responsible? I mean, how are you so sure? If you don’t know why they died, how do you know anything? Is there something you are holding back?’